Alberta government postpones release of revised school library book ban
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The Alberta government has postponed the release of its revised school library book ban to Monday.
The government had promised the new ministerial order for Friday afternoon, with a technical briefing for reporters set earlier in the day.
After the briefing was supposed to start, news outlets were informed by email that it had been rescheduled.
“We are taking the time needed to ensure that the revised ministerial order is clear for all school boards,” Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides later said in an email in response to questions about the postponement.
On Tuesday, the government directed school boards to pause their work in complying with the original order.
School boards had initially been given to the end of the month to remove books containing what the province deemed sexually explicit content, including images, illustrations and written descriptions.
That led Edmonton Public Schools to compile a list of over 200 books it needed to remove, including several literary classics like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
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The popular Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and Game of Thrones books by George R.R. Martin — both of which were turned into award-winning television series — were also on the EPSB list.
The Outlander, Game of Thrones and Fourth Wing series were on the Edmonton Public Schools draft list of books to be removed from libraries.
Karen Bartko, Global News
Dozens more books were set to be inaccessible to students in kindergarten through Grade 9, including George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Premier Danielle Smith has called the board’s list an act of “vicious compliance” and accused the school division of purposely misinterpreting the intent of the government’s policy.
On Tuesday, she said the pause would be in effect for a matter “of hours” while Nicolaides rewrote the order.
She said the order would be changed to only target books with images of sexual content.
“We are not trying to remove classics of literature,” Smith said. “What we are trying to remove is graphic images that young children should not be having a look at.”
Nicolaides took to social media that evening to share lists of schools in Edmonton and Calgary that had stocked four graphic novels the government has cited as the reason behind the order.
“I initially did not share this list, as I did not feel drawing attention to individual schools was necessary or helpful,” he wrote. “However, I believe Albertans deserve transparency.”
Smith’s United Conservative Party government has been widely criticized for the order.
Atwood posted a satirical short story last weekend that she said could replace her most famous work in Alberta school libraries. The satire is about two 17-year-olds who “grew up and married each other, and produced five perfect children without ever having sex.”
Richard Van Camp, another Canadian author with a book on the list from Edmonton Public Schools, said in a statement this week people should be angry about the order and encouraged them to protest.
“I’m in great company with all these ‘banned’ treasured reads,” said Van Camp, a Dene writer from Fort Smith, N.W.T. whose coming of age novel The Lesser Blessed was to be pulled from school shelves.
“Enjoy The Lesser Blessed when you’re ready for a gut punch through your soul with an ending lit with hope.”
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